Evaluation of Inquiries about the UIS Environmental Studies Online Master s Degree Program

Transcription

1 Evaluation of Inquiries about the UIS Environmental Studies Online Master s Degree Program Lenore Killam Hung-Lung Wei Dennis R. Ruez, Jr. University of Illinois at Springfield Introduction The Department of Environmental Studies has maintained information about inquiries concerning the ENS MA Online Degree program since its inception in The inquiries include those submitted from the University of Illinois Online Web site, Illinois Virtual Campus Web site, various academic search engine inquiries, independent inquiries, and telephone inquiries. The database includes six categories of information: name address home address telephone number date of response comments such as preferred term of entry or current education level The information was analyzed to develop the following: the total number of inquiries since 2006 the number of inquiries per month the number of inquiries annually identified by state and country the number of persons requesting information who ultimately apply Number of Inquiries During the four years of , the online coordinator has responded to 1269 requests for information. The total number of inquiries is slightly higher, but does not include informal telephone and school fair inquiries where identifying information was not collected. The highest monthly total is 52 in January The lowest monthly total is 9 in June The average number is 26 inquiries per month. The average monthly totals reveal that the peak month for inquiries is January, with an average of 38 inquiries. June has the lowest average total with 21 inquiries per month. (Appendix A). Inquiries Identified by Location Of the 1269 inquires, 900 (70.9%) provide address information. This information shows that 821 of these addresses (91.2%) are within the USA. Nearly half of the inquiries with US addresses (49.6%) were from 6 states: Illinois (24.4%), California (9.4%), Florida (4.6%), Pennsylvania (3.9%), New York (3.7%) and Texas (3.7%). There are three states from which no inquiries were made: Delaware, North Dakota, and South Dakota, (Appendix B). There are a few notable findings from the tables. Illinois showed an unusual spike in inquiries during Florida, Indiana, and New Mexico showed increases in Two states to show a trend decline are Missouri and Mississippi. However, these trends may be an artifact of the small number of inquiries from each state. Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 1

2 There are 79 international inquiries identified by address, representing 6.2% of the total inquiries. No one country dominates the international inquiry total. There are 6 each from Canada and India, and Nigeria, 4 each from Germany and UAE, and 3 each from China, Greece, Pakistan and Puerto Rico (Appendix C). Inquirers Who Become Applicants Of the 146 applicants for academic years , 88 (60.3%) had requested information prior to filing their application. These 88 applicants represent 7.1% of the total number of inquiries (Appendix D). Summary These data suggest that most of our applicants contact us before filing their application, and online inquiries are more closely related to state population than proximity to Illinois. These states are good candidates for future marketing efforts. Appendix A The Number of Inquiries per Month Month Average Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Cumulative Total Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 2

3 Appendix B Inquiries by State Ranked By Frequency State Total IL CA FL PA NY TX VA MO MI NC CO GA NJ AZ IN OH MA WI NM AL KS WA IA LA MD NV TN KY MN MS AR SC AK HI MT OR UT CT ME NE Washington D.C WY NH OK 2 2 RI 2 2 ID 1 1 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 3

4 VT 1 1 WV 1 1 Totals Appendix C International Inquiries Ranked By Frequency Country Total Canada India Nigeria Germany UAE China Greece Pakistan Puerto Rico Chile Columbia Korea (R.O.) Malaysia UK Afghanistan 1 1 Barbados 1 1 Bermuda 1 1 Bosnia-Hercegovina 1 1 Brazil 1 1 Burundi 1 1 Costa Rica 1 1 Denmark 1 1 Ecuador 1 1 Egypt 1 1 Ethiopia 1 1 France 1 1 Gabon 1 1 Ghana 1 1 Guyana 1 1 Italy 1 1 Jamaica 1 1 Japan 1 1 Jordan 1 1 Kenya 1 1 Mexico 1 1 Namibia 1 1 Oman 1 1 Panama 1 1 Peru 1 1 Philippines 1 1 Russia 1 1 Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 4

5 Saudi Arabia 1 1 Senegal 1 1 Switzerland 1 1 Uganda 1 1 Total 79 Appendix D Number of Applicants Who Had Previously Filed Inquiries Academic Year Applicant Status Applicant Total Applicants Who Inquired Before Submittal 2006 Admitted Admitted Denied Admitted Denied Admitted Denied Pending 3 0 Totals Percentage of applicants who filed inquiries 60.3% Percentage of total inquiries (from Appendix A) converted to applicants 7.1% Note. These data include only those applicants denied by the program. It does not include the applicants denied by the Office of Admissions before notification to the program. About the Presenter Lenore Killam is an Online Coordinator for the University of Illinois at Springfield, College of Public Affairs and Administration. She is the first point of contact for students interested in admission to the Department of Environmental Studies online degree program. She earned a Bachelor's degree in biology and a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from Sangamon State University, which is now UIS. In addition to her position at the University, she is a student in the UIS Doctor of Public Administration program. Address: 1 University Plaza, PAC 308 Springfield, IL Phone: lkill2@uis.edu Copyright 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 5